Capacitor 1.0: A new way to build native mobile apps with Ionic

[@relax_monkey]

Glad to hear that Capacitor and Cordova work side by side. Easy to migrate the existing project. Great job guys.👍

[@MattNetkow]

Thanks for watching! Check out the migration guide for more info: capacitor.ionicframework.com/docs/cordova/migrating-from-cordova-to-capacitor

[@yodafuzz]

30:00 I'm guessing you were using the webcam on the laptop for the webinar recording, hence why the PWA couldn't get access to the webcam :-) Cool stuff, thanks for the vid!

[@MattNetkow]

You are likely correct :) . I made some updates to the repo, Camera working much better now. github.com/ionic-team/capacitor-plugin-demo

[@diptimanmitra]

should we consider converting existing ionic 4 + cordova app to capacitor .. Or only building new stuffs using capacitor ?

[@MattNetkow]

Consider converting. Capacitor is backward-compatible with Cordova. Watch above starting at 19:30 for an example app and also see our guide: capacitor.ionicframework.com/docs/cordova/migrating-from-cordova-to-capacitor

[@valcron-1000]

What can we expect about plugin support comming from the Ionic team? An also, why should we invest in Capacitor when PWAs offer a lot of common use APIs directly in JS (camera, geolocation, file picker, etc.), without much effort? I wish the project success, and I hope it can improve both user an developer experience.

[@ihasmax]

Hey, so we will continue to support the core APIs (plugins) available out of the box, and may add a few here and there. However, a goal of Capacitor is to encourage the community to build their own plugins by making it easier to do so (hence why we've invested a lot of effort in improving the plugin developer experience). As for PWAs, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, many of those APIs are not necessarily easy to use (for example, getUserMedia requires hundreds of lines to build a good camera app experience, and that's available out of the box in Capacitor). Also, Capacitor gives you the option to target both app stores and the web on day one with the exact same code. That is more of a business/marketing benefit since you can reach people where they are, take full advantage of web and google search traffic, but still let people find your app in the app store. Hope that helps!

[@valcron-1000]

​@@ihasmax Thanks for the answer. I'll definitely check it out. Cordova was not a very pleasant experience for the developer.

[@rhubarb6565]

I have been using PhoneGap Build to build Android and iOS - no Mac needed. I am looking to migrate. AFAIKS if I use Capacitor, then I am building locally and therefore need a Mac to build iOS apps. If I use AppFlow to build in the cloud do I need a Mac also?

[@IonicFramework]

Nope! You'll need your Apple certs etc. that you can get out of Apple's Developer site, but that's it. We recently created a new PhoneGap Build migration guide, see here: ionicframework.com/docs/appflow/cookbook/phonegap-build-migration

[@CodiceMente]

Does Capacitor work with Ionic React projects right now, or does it support only Angular?

[@IonicFramework]

It does work with React! It's web framework agnostic, so you can use it with any web app code and don't necessarily need to use Ionic Framework - though that's the best experience :)

[@kidstogrown]

Hi, why is the name capacitor?

[@1984mnemonic]

I have one question. I have build a capacitor App, i can build the APK locally with Android Studio, but if I deploy on my account of ionicframework.com, it doesn't build the Package, and I see that it tries to build with Cordova. When will be possible to use ionicframework.com to build the apk's on your platform rather than locally. Thanks. By the way, fantastic job guys.

[@IonicFramework]

Capacitor support on Ionic Appflow is coming very soon ;)

[@1984mnemonic]

@@IonicFramework Aha, thanks for reply, waiting eagerly for it.

[@AntonioGallo73]

12:48 well config.xml is versionable via git - i don't like very much the idea to mess with native project's file - if i've to do, then i prefer to use React Native

[@ihasmax]

The problem is you don't have a choice . At some point you're going to run up against the native tooling. We find that abstracting it away through custom configuration and custom tooling is, in the long run, a more difficult experience for both users and for us to maintain. It sounds nice in theory, but a huge part of the frustration of Cordova stems from the fact that you're interfacing with these tools and platforms through custom tooling.

[@hesabbgmail]

Where to find the demo code?

[@IonicFramework]

Not available yet, but here's a similar example repo: github.com/ionic-team/webinar-capflow

[@computerminds5967]

@@IonicFramework what about the device-info demo. I really need that

[@FreddyOneKenobi]

No config.xml? I think that this is a really bad idea. "write once" support is gone forever,now you are forced to use IDE for each language. No good :D

[@MattNetkow]

The reality is that you're interfacing with native tooling either way: whether it's through custom tooling like with config.xml or directly with the IDEs. I encourage you to give this approach a try before dismissing it - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. capacitor.ionicframework.com/docs/getting-started/with-ionic

[@SaudBako]

Klie? ( ☉ д ☉ ) 22:59